I am on the verge of being done with my 3.5 year restoration. I have never seen my car move under it's own power. After performing the "gross" timing of lining up the notch with the timing cover marker, setting the(new Bosch) rotor opposite to the notch in the distributor, car would not start. I checked gas and spark and they were there. Decided to look at the timing once more and found this.......the notch that holds the rotor in place to the distributor shaft had broken, the rotor was spinning freely..................Geeze.
Anyone Ever See a Rotor Do this?
- Thread starter bavbob
- Start date
Check that it’s the right size rotor and that it didn’t jam up against the electrodes in the cap and snap that way.
Vintage BMW blues... Should be a song!
Looks like it bit your finger too.
Looks like it bit your finger too.
How could you get spark with the rotor not turning?
spark at coil wire?
That’s odd, I just a couple days ago pulled the rotor to look at the pertronix number for Rob and noticed that notch was breaking down and had left small red chunks in the shaft recess. It’s 1 year old Bosch Spain.
BavBob's coupe was born under a bad sign--"If it wasn't for bad luck,it wouldn't any luck at all"
Happened to me once on a 2002 I had. The motor mounts weren’t stiff enough to counter the torque of the high output motor, and the engine would rock enough such that under full throttle the dizzy cap would hit against the inner fender, knocking the cap enough that the rotor would hit the cap and the rotor tab would shear off. Solved with stiffer motor mounts.
WRT spark, I pulled a plug, let it sit on the engine block, I tried to start and my son watched for spark. He saw it but I took it at that. In retrospect it was erratic so the rotor was randomly spinning I guess, and occasionally hit the mark.
Yes, I too found orange debris in the shaft recess.
The car ran when I first purchased it, the rotor was identical to the one I replaced. I actually went back to the old one.
I think what happened was that I put in a Petronix unit and did not have the ring seated all the way so the rotor was not seated well. I did try to turn the rotor when I put it in and it seemed to be catching the notch ok but was not enough once I tried to start the car. Live and (at my age) try to learn.
Yes, I too found orange debris in the shaft recess.
The car ran when I first purchased it, the rotor was identical to the one I replaced. I actually went back to the old one.
I think what happened was that I put in a Petronix unit and did not have the ring seated all the way so the rotor was not seated well. I did try to turn the rotor when I put it in and it seemed to be catching the notch ok but was not enough once I tried to start the car. Live and (at my age) try to learn.